Insights, opinions and a point of view from a call center, contact center and customer experience consulting veteran related to call centers, contact centers, customer service and customer satisfaction based on 35+ years of industry knowledge and experience.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Is the Customer Experience Really New?

In fact most of what we speak about when we talk about the customer experience is what we used to call customer service, or customer centicity. It seems that if we call it customer experience somehow it requires millions of dollars of investment, large teams and expansive budgets. Well from my perspective that is not the case. If we boil the Customer Experience to it’s essential nature what is it? Major elements of Customer Experience include: the customer journey (attraction, discovery, purchase etc.), customer effort in interactions and our ability to influence how customers feel about the organization…doesn’t this sound like customer service?

Now before I start to get nasty emails from practitioners who disagree with this perspective, let me state that I do believe that for mature service organizations some CX practices can improve service quality, CSAT as well as loyalty and reduce defections. However most organizations are not mature, they are still scrambling up the service quality path. For these, the majority of organizations, focusing on the basics can yield great returns. To start ask yourself how well your organization and agents;

1. Have your agents possess the product knowledge to make rational connections with your customers?

2. Do you agents possess the skills and competencies to make an emotional connection with your customers?

3. Are your systems and service levels in line with the expectations of your customers?

Your answers will distill the core of any customer experience the training, staff selection, tools and metrics.

In our next post we will discuss how you design your center to maximize the customers experience.

About Me

More than 33 years of call and contact center experience. Worked in every position possible in the call/contact industry space. Recipient of more than 27 awards for call/contact center excellence. More than 14,000 agent desktops around the globe employ TRG designed operational models. CEO of The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. a call and contact center consultancy, past President & CEO of Watts Communications a large contact center outsource agency. Author, speaker and expert on all things call or contact center.
For more information visit http://www.thetaylorreachgroup.com